Sixers

Michael Carter-Williams: ‘Lebron Was Coasting A Little’

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Even the most optimistic Sixers fans would have had a hard time imagining what happened Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Not just a win over the two-time champion Miami Heat, not just racing out to a 19-0 start, but an all-time great rookie debut from point guard Michael Carter-Williams. Carter-Williams nearly had a quadruple double, and put up a stat line that has been matched few and far between in NBA history.

He said that he had no idea the line he was putting together as he racked up points, assists, steals and rebounds.

“I knew I had pretty good stats in the steals category, but everything else I didn’t. I was such in the moment, just going through the flow of the game,” he said on Friday’s Dan Patrick Show on DirecTV. “When I saw it and people were telling me, I was real excited about it. I just try to do all the little things in the game to help my team win.”

Dwyane Wade sat the game out to rest his knees, so Lebron James became even more of a focus than he normally is.

Carter-Williams said he, just like everyone else, wants to take down James.

“That competitive side is always there. He’s the best player in the world, so I’m just trying to make a name for myself out there. I was just trying to be real focused in anything I did, from knocking down jump shots—I’m trying to get my jump shot like yours, I see you working on it in the show,” he said. “He [LeBron] just gave me a pat on the back, saying good job. We didn’t really converse that much.”

Carter-Williams said he didn’t hear much trash talk from James, and wanted to keep it that way. “He was coasting a little bit, so I didn’t want to wake up the sleeping giant,” he said.

The 11th pick in a draft that many believed to be weak overall, Carter-Williams is making a name for himself rather quickly.

“I have a lot of nicknames. Some people call me MCW. People from when I went to high school, they just call me Carter. I don’t really have a sticky nickname yet,” he said. Patrick suggested he go by “Hyphen.” “Hyphen? I haven’t be called that yet. I don’t know. Whatever works,” he said.